The present invention relates to an IC card, more specifically to an IC card which can rewrite content information stored in the IC card.
As regards rewriting content information of an IC card, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No 193399 describes that a date is automatically rewritten based on a date signal, and a limit of a monthly usable amount of money (content information) of a credit card is returned to the limited amount when a rewriting date has passed. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 204484/1997 describes that a plurality of regions are provided in an IC card to store electronic money information, royalty service information and service content information to thereby provide premium service. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 204484/1997 describes a method for using an IC card for a game apparatus, in which various content information of the IC card is rewritten under various conditions.
However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 193399/1991, the rewriting is performed, only based on a date signal (a clock circuit), whereby the rewriting cannot be performed based on parameters other than the date signal. Furthermore, the limit of a usable money amount is simply returned to its initial amount and cannot be increased. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 203383/1997, a royalty service rate and a premium rate are fixed, whereby customers whose use frequency of their IC cards is higher, and customers whose use frequency of their IC cards cannot be discriminated from each other. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 332281/1997, data of the IC card are not rewritten.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. An object of the present invention is to provide an IC card which can have a variety of rewriting conditions and rewritten contents, to thereby provide fine services suitable to individual customers.
The present invention is an IC card comprising use information recording means for recording use information of an IC card, content information storage means for storing content information of the IC card, use information judging means for comparing the use information of the IC card recorded by the use information recording means with a predetermined condition value of use information, and judging whether the recorded use information of the IC card agrees with the predetermined condition value, and rewriting means for rewriting the content information stored in the content information storage means when the use information judging means judges that the recorded use information of the IC card agrees with the determined condition value.
According to the present invention, the use information judging means judges whether or not use information agrees with a predetermined condition value, and when the use information judging means judges that the use information agrees with the predetermined condition value, the rewriting means rewrites the content information stored in the content information storing means. Accordingly, there is no restriction by rewriting conditions or rewritten contents, so that suitable services can be provided to individual customers.
The IC card according to the present invention is one that is adaptable to multi-applications, and the use information judging means and the rewriting means comprises additional corresponding applications.
According to the present invention, applications are added to the IC card which is adaptable to multi-applications to thereby compose the use information judging means and the rewriting means. Accordingly, the IC card can be easily produced by without correcting the operating system.
In the IC card according to the present invention, the use information recorded in the use information recording means is an accumulated used amount of money.
According to the present invention, when the accumulated used amount of money agrees with the predetermined accumulated used amount of money, the content information is rewritten. The predetermined used amount of money is provided in the application incorporated in the IC card, as one parameter of the application.
In the IC card according to the present invention, the use information recorded in the use information recording means is accumulated use times.
According to the present invention, when the use times agree with predetermined use times, the content information is rewritten. The predetermined accumulated use times is provided in the application incorporated in the IC card, as one parameter of the application.
In the IC card according to the present invention, the content information stored in the content information storing means is a royalty service rate.
According to the present invention, when the use information agrees with the predetermined condition value, the royalty service rate is automatically rewritten.
In the IC card according to the present invention, the content information stored in the content information storing means is a premium rate.
According to the present invention, when the use information agrees with the predetermined condition value, the premium rate is automatically rewritten.
In the IC card according to the present invention, the content information stored in the content information storing means is a limit of usable amount of money.
According to the present invention, when the use information agrees with the predetermined condition value, the limit of usable amount of money is automatically rewritten.
The IC card according to the present invention is one that is used in a game apparatus, and the content information stored in content information storing means is ability data for the game apparatus.
According to the present invention, when the use information agrees with the predetermined condition value, the ability data for the game apparatus is rewritten.